updated 02:13 pm EDT, Sun May 5, 2013

Analyst predicts good sales based on checks with retailers

By returning to its roots, BlackBerry may have provided itself with a winner. Citing checks with assorted retailers, an analyst predicts that BlackBerry's hardware QWERTY handset, the Q10, is selling well in both Canada and Britain. The phone is the second model BlackBerry has released in the past few months, and arguably the model more anticipated by BlackBerry fans due to its retention of a physical keyboard.

"Our checks indicate broad sellouts with generally limited stock otherwise," Jeffries analyst Peter Misek said in a note last week, according toReuters. "Based on our store checks, the BlackBerry Q10 has been selling extremely well and has been sold out or seeing limited availability in Toronto and across the U.K."

The Q10 was revealed in January alongside the all-touchscreen Z10. Both models run BlackBerry's newest operating system BlackBerry 10, and the company hopes that the two in combination will help it reverse a years-long slide into near-irrelevance in the smartphone segment.

BlackBerry sold a million Z10s in the most recent quarter, demonstrating that there is some interest in its new operating system. The Q10 may do better, though, as the company's fans have tended to be most attached to physical keyboards.

BlackBerry executives have maintained a level of confidence about the hardware keyboard-enabled handset. Asked to opine no the device's prospects, they've said they expect sales in the tens of millions.